


Haircuts

by mikharlow



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Soulmate AU, it is more hurt than comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 13:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11128080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikharlow/pseuds/mikharlow
Summary: Soulmate AU where a part of your hair, called a Soul Strand, is the same colour as your soulmate's natural colour.This is the story of Furihata Kouki, whose Soul Strand was unusual at best.





	Haircuts

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy this crossposted monster!

On Furihata Kouki’s tenth birthday, on November 8th at 3:24am, his Soul Strand changed its hue.

A Soul Strand is a lock of your hair which matches that of your soulmates’, so for example, Furihata Yuki’s black Soul Strand and Furihata Kotaro’s brown one matched each other’s natural pigments. So it was quite a shock when Kouki woke up to see a strip of bright scarlet running through his usually mousy-brown hair, starting from his parting and sweeping to the left in his fringe.

When he’d appeared at the breakfast table that morning, his mother and father gave him surprised and happy looks, and hugged him tightly, jesting about the vibrancy of the red. “It won’t be hard to find them now!” his father had laughed, and Kouki had laughed too, out of anticipation, anxiety, nervousness, excitement. Because wow, he had a soulmate, there was someone out there destined to fall in love with him. And the thought made shivers run down his spine.

Every day for three years, he looked at his Strand in the mirror and brushed the red with the tips of his fingers, smiling to himself because who even has bright red hair, anyway? No ten-year-olds he knew, at least.

He did this every day, until one day, he stopped.

In his third year of middle school, something happened to Kouki that changed him. He woke up at 7:30am, like he usually did, went to the bathroom, like he usually did, washed his face, and looked up into the mirror. Horror took over him as he stared at his reflection like it was a monster. The usual lock of bright scarlet was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was met with the same brown colour in its place, as if nothing was ever there in the first place.

His Soul Strand had disappeared.

He’d ran into his parent’s room, panicked, bombarding them with questions.

“Where did it go, Mom?!” he had half-screamed. “Why’s it gone? What’s happened to them? Did I do something wrong?! Dad? Please tell me what’s happening!!!”

His mother and father had only shared a confused and worried glance, because this had never happened to them, or anyone they knew. Kouki, seeing his parents weren’t any the wiser than himself, fled to his room and buried himself in his blankets, where he cried, and cried. His soulmate was gone, and he didn’t know why, and he felt guilty, and cheated, but most of all, he felt grief. Grief like he’d never known before.

Sure, his grandfather died when he was eight, and he cried at the funeral, tears of sadness and loss. But that was nothing like what he felt now. What he felt now was like knives stabbing through his chest, twisting and tearing gaping wounds with every body-racking sob that he choked out, and he clutched his pillow and cried until his knuckles were white and his throat hoarse. He hadn’t even known who they were, and yet he felt as if a part of him had died, leaving a hole in him, a void, a hunger that could not be sated, not even with the desperate attempts of his family to bring him back to his usual cheery self.

He didn’t attend school for a week. He felt embarrassed. And why shouldn’t he? He’d seen his friends, with their own Strands, everyone had one. Except from him. He was the odd one out, the black sheep, standing out from the rest. Even those with Soul Strands that matched their own hair colour, it was always clear where it was. There was something about it that stood out, that gave of a feel of warmth and significance. But when Kouki looked at his own, he saw the flat, cold face of a broken promise.

When he finally returned to his regular school routine, he was shaking with nerves as he opened the classroom door. He had ignored the looks of the people in the hallways, but he couldn’t ignore people here. As he greeted his friends, they waved, smiled, told him that they’d missed him. They didn’t say anything about this Strand, which he was grateful for. But he didn’t miss the looks they gave each other when they thought he wasn't looking. He was still a freak. 

He didn't dare look at himself in the mirror for too long: it brought back painful memories that he'd rather not remember. He didn't want to forget either, though, so he'd spare a quick look at his reflection, just long enough to make sure he didn't look a mess, and just long enough to give him a wave of sadness and self-pity. 

Then in high school, things began to change again.

It was almost laughable how coincidental it was, when a skinny, almost invisible boy with a strip of blazing red, and a towering, muscled boy with a strand of pale blue, decided to join the basketball team. Everyone knew they were meant to be: they say that two soulmates looked like two pieces of a puzzle when they stood beside each other, and that was the exact truth, or at least for Kagami Taiga and Kuroko Tetsuya.

Everyone else had shared knowing smirks, and Kawahara wouldn't stop going on about how well they fitted together, and how lucky they were that they had met each other at such an early age. But for Kouki, his smile was put-on, faking happiness, because they really were lucky that they had met each other. So lucky, that Kouki was envious. 

He couldn't have been the only one, surely. They were perfect. And Kouki wasn't. He wasn't going to find his other half, and that made him angry, at himself, and at everyone who took their Strand for granted. And he knew it was stupid to be angry at the two of them, especially when Kuroko was so nice to him. But he couldn't help but feel cheated once again. 

It was in the winter of his first year when things got really weird. He had followed Kuroko to this thing that he'd been 'summoned' to, where all of the Miracles were gathered. And this is where Akashi Seijuro made his debut in Kouki's life. 

Appearing at the top of a set of stone steps, speaking in a smooth and vaguely threatening voice. And he'd spoken to Kouki himself, scrutinising him, asking him to leave. And Kouki found he couldn't move. 

"There's someone here who doesn't belong."

The words were few, and the impact large.

"Sorry, but could you leave?" It wasn't a request.

Kouki remembers how he felt that day. 

What's going on? I'm frozen, I can't move.

Akashi Seijuro was terrifying, a powerful force to be reckoned with. But he was also fascinating, graceful even as he took a pair of scissors and lunged forward towards Kagami.

You're kidding, right? he had thought. He was really trying to hit him!

But none of that compared to what happened next. Akashi raised the scissors, and started cutting his fringe, the hair falling to the concrete at his feet. Kouki watched as the blade snapped, his eyes following the red gathering at his feet. Like blood, ironically.

But when it came to the boy's Soul Strand, when the metal snipped a centimetre's length off of the brown, Kouki felt something twinge in his chest. It sent a wave down to his fingertips, which twitched, and his heart skipped a beat. 

What's this? Why am I having trouble breathing? 

He knew why, though. Technically, you weren't supposed to cut your Soul Strand by yourself. You were meant to get an actual hairdresser to do to for you, because they had a special (and expensive) product that would prevent the customer's soulmate from experiencing the side effects of cutting the Strand.

These 'side effects' included, dizziness, blurred thoughts, and inability to form sentences, albeit, only for a few moments, but in some cases he had read about, if the two were close, the effects could reach a serious level. 

So the only logical reason he could think of was extreme empathy for this heterochromatic teen's soulmate. It's not like he would ever know what the feeling was actually like, seeing as it varied and was difficult to explain, but his increased heart rate gave an indication to how they must have be feeling. 

Kouki barely heard any of the rest of Akashi's speech. As he turned and left, the Miracles disbanded. When Kuroko tapped his shoulder, asking if he was coming back to the others. Kouki, still in shock, shook his head, a small motion that Kuroko thankfully noticed, because his head was swimming, and any further motion would have sent him keeling.

He stood staring at nothing for a while, clearing his thoughts. Then he moved, walking over to the pile of red hair, discarded, a stark contrast to the dull grey of the slabs beneath him. Amidst the red, there was a small splash of brown. Kouki felt his breath hitch. 

Akashi's Soul Strand. How surreal. 

Kouki wasn't aware that he had pocketed it, until he felt it a few days later when he threw his jacket onto his bed. 

A lock of hair peeked out from the folds of the fabric, Kouki scooped it up and held it between his fingers. He shivered. It felt strangely... Intimate. In fact, he was probably a creep for keeping it. But this was something precious, a tie between one person and another. And he couldn't throw something like that away. 

But on inspection, the brown hair wasn't all there was. There was a smaller lock of red hidden beside it, the colours complementing each other in an odd sort of way. Kouki felt something stir within him. 

He kept the hair wrapped in a tissue.

~~~

Kouki's fingernails dug crescents into his arms as he watched the game unfolding before him. The tension was unbelievable - as expected of the final match of the Winter Cup. 

Seirin were hanging onto Rakuzan's tail as they played, with the latter not quite being able to shake them off. Until yet another incredible thing happened.

Kouki's eyes couldn't look away from the two ex teammates standing off. The air between them was sparking, and then -

Kouki's heart leapt to his throat, his stomach fluttered, and then twisted violently. He doubled over, clutching the edge of the bench. He suddenly felt to hot, he was sweating, and it wasn't from having been on the court.

"Furi? FURI!" called a voice. He snapped his head up, seeing things in a dizzy haze. "Furi, are you okay?"

Kouki ignored the concern, instead redirection his attention to the match. The two were no longer standing off, but something felt different - off, even. Something had happened that he had missed, in his short period of whatever that was.

He felt unsettled, fearing a relapse. He watched on, gritting his teeth against his nausea, trying to pay attention to the game, but... his eyes kept travelling back to the captain with the red hair. Akashi wasn't acting like he was before. It was strange, Kouki couldn't put his finger on it. What was so different?

That's when, abruptly, all of Rakuzan launched into the Zone.

"What the... Can they do that?" Kouki was talking to Riko beside him, but he dared not take his eyes off any of the players for a second.

"I... I have no idea." was the whispered response.

And then it was Kuroko, being blocked by Akashi, and even though he was on he bench, he heard exactly what he said before scoring that final, deciding shot:

"I am a shadow."

And then everyone was up on their feet, screaming, shouting, because Seirin had defeated the champions and won the Winter Cup. Kouki forgot about his throbbing head, and rushed over to the rest of their team, where they cried, and hugged, and Kouki had never felt so unbelievably happy about anything, not since the day his Strand had disappeared.

The Rakuzan team had gathered to congratulate them on a good game. Every one of them looked equally shocked, sad, yet... Relieved, somehow. Akashi gave Kuroko a sad smile, out stretching his hand.

-

He looked at the team not as a whole, but as individuals. He smiled at Kagami, nodded at Hyuuga, showing a respect for each of their members which felt so uncharacteristically natural for this boy.

Then his eyes fell on Kouki, and he felt his breath catch. His eyes. They were red. Not the red-yellow mismatched pair he had expected, but a warm, ruby red that had him staring.

And Akashi was staring back, eyes wide, jaw slacked. And so were the rest of them.

"Furihata-kun..." Kuroko was at his side, giving him a look Kouki hadn't known he was capable of making. 

"What?" he asked, voice wavering. The audience had gone fairly quiet, too. "Why's everyone... Huh?"

Kawahara was the one who spoke.

"Hair."

Kouki gave him a confused look, but then Fukuda pointed to his own, and gestured to Kouki's. He reached a hand up, brushed his bangs in front of his face, and...

Oh my god.

Without saying a word, Kouki bolted off the court, through the hallways under the stands, until he found the men's bathrooms. He grasped the sides of the sink, panting, wondering what the hell was going on?

After he calmed his breathing and his heart, he looked up, just for his heartbeat to stop altogether. 

A scarlet strand of hair, as bright as ever, had appeared on the left side of his fringe, bringing back waves of emotions and nostalgia.

Kouki couldn't help it. He choked, reaching up and stroking the red, vision blurring as tears came to his eyes, not quite falling, resting on his lashes. 

"Why now?" he whispered, eyes wide with incredulity and confusion. "Why... why did this happen?"

Something had happened to his soulmate. Had that happened when he was watching the game? Was this the reason he'd blacked out? 

Kouki thought back as far as his shattered mind could go. He remembered feeling nauseous, and then there's was pain, but afterwards, there was nothing different, except...

Then he was running again, this time to Seirin's locker rooms, where he'd left his bag, where he kept a lock of hair.

If I'm right about this... 

He slammed open the door and unzipped the bag, nearly breaking the zip, dug around until his fingers brushed the soft tissue at the bottom. He brought it to the light, unfolding the material, and holding the hair in his hand.

He had to try this out. He was going to get a beating if he was caught, but he opened the coach's box of things, searching for something that she had to have somewhere.

Finally, he came across a small, plain hand mirror. Kouki took a deep breath. He turned it over, his reflection flushed, heart speeding up as his eyes fell on his Strand. He shakily raised the lock of hair, so it was against his own, and everything around him seemed to stop. 

They matched perfectly. The red hues were two of a kind, the browns' twin colours blending so that Kouki couldn't tell what part belonged to him.

"This makes sense."

Kouki spun around, the mirror clattering to the floor. 

Akashi smiled at him from the doorway. "Hello, Furihata-kun."

"I..." Kouki's heart was pounding. "We... We're...?"

The boy walked forward, stepping inside the changing room. "I believe we are soulmates, yes."

Hearing the word out loud, it was too much. Kouki felt the tears come, the wetness on his cheeks, and he smiled. "This... is insane."

Akashi nodded. He reached up and placed a hand on Kouki's cheek, wiping away a tear. 

After a few beats, found it in himself to ask the most important question in his mind.

"It disappeared - my Soul Strand, it disappeared during middle school. Why?"

Akashi frowned, thinking. Realisation dawned on him, his eyes widening. He mumbled something that Kouki couldn't hear.

"What was that?" 

Akashi sighed. "I think it was because of my other self."

Other... self? Then Kouki remembered everything that Kuroko had told him before the match. How Akashi had changed.

"I - I see." 

"Because my other self wasn't meant to exist, as it was a different person altogether, I think that... was the cause." Akashi shook his head. "I'm so sorry, Furihata-kun, if I hadn't..."

"No! It wasn't your fault." Kouki rushed to assure him. "And... you can call me Kouki, if you like." He knew he was blushing, he could tell from the sudden cool feel of Akashi's palm on his cheek, who gave him the most genuine smile he'd ever seen.

"Then you may call me Seijuro." Akashi rested their foreheads together. "Thank you, Kouki." he whispered. "I was looking for you."

"Me too." he chuckled. "I was too, Sei."

**Author's Note:**

> edit: the reception on this has been so wonderful??? I wrote this like a year a ago and forgot to post it so I'm thrilled that you all like it so much!! Love you guys


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